The present invention relates to apparatus for feeding bulk materials and in particular to apparatus for metering one or more varieties of such material to an outlet station.
Metering apparatuses for bulk materials comprising a main conveyor associated with metering conveyors are known. These conveyors are generally screw conveyors. A single motor can simultaneously drive all the conveyors, but each metering conveyor has a variable speed operating system permitting an individual regulation of the flow.
Such arrangements are for example described in French Pat. No. 69/39742 of Nov. 19th, 1969 as printed under 2,067,849.
In apparatus of this type, it is difficult to combine several conveyors into select groups since it is far from easy to regulate the operating speed of the individual metering conveyors, particularly during operation. Certain operational safety devices would also be desirable particularly when there is no material or when the material in the conveyor jams up within the conveyor. The available torque is not sufficient to give the conveyors an adequate torque force and dimension to convey the necessary amounts of the material.